Temple's secret weapon Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson keys win over La Salle

PHILADELPHIA -- Someone forgot to forward Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson the memo that this was supposed to be La Salle's night to shine.

Instead, he stole the show.

The 6-7 senior forward from Chester had the game of his career as Temple held off La Salle, 82-74, to win a share of its 27th Big 5 championship Thursday night at the Liacouras Center.

Hollis-Jefferson scored a career-high 23 points, pulled down a career-best 18 rebounds and handed out five assists as the Owls (18-8 overall, 7-5 Atlantic 10, 3-1 Big 5) prevented the Explorers from winning the city series title outright for the first time since 1989-90, when Lionel Simmons, Doug Overton and Randy Woods were the marquee players.

Simmons was on hand just in case the Explorers (18-7, 8-4, 3-1) claimed the Big 5 title. Instead, La Salle had to settle for a share of the city series crown with Temple.

"The stage was set for it to be a great game and Temple more than did their part," La Salle coach John Giannini said. "They were terrific."

Guard Khalif Wyatt finished with 17 points and four assists. Scootie Randall added 15 point and 10 boards. Anthony Lee and Jake O'Brien chipped in with 10 points each, but no one was better than Hollis-Jefferson. He played like a man possessed and came up huge when the Owls needed it most. He saved 15 of his points for the second half, 12 in the final 11 minutes as the Explorers climbed out of a 22-point hole and made things interesting.

"I just came out aggressive," the soft-spoken Hollis-Jefferson said. "My teammates were looking for me and I was able to knock down my shots tonight and just had it going."

Hollis-Jefferson's biggest baskets were a pair of tip-ins that came midway through the second half as La Salle was making a run. He tipped in a Will Cummings miss after La Salle cut the deficit to 57-47. He was there to tip home a Wyatt miss 35 seconds later to give the Owls a 13-point cushion with 10:12 remaining in the game.

"Rahlir was just spectacular," Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. "Not only did he hit open jumpers, but also had a couple of tip-ins that allowed us to maintain a decent cushion."

Hollis-Jefferson wasn't finished, and neither were the Owls. He hit four big jumpers down the stretch to keep the Explorers at bay.

"Those tip-ins were a result of them getting by us on the dribble," Giannini said. "When Rahlir's man would go to help or take a charge and Rahlir was left without someone on him. And when a good rebounder's left without a body on him, that's what's going to happen."

Temple was able to build that 22-point lead because the Explorers were unable to get stops most of the night. The Owls used an 18-1 run to take a 39-25 lead into the locker room and sealed the victory with 43 points in the second half.

LaSalle's woes began when Tyreek Duren (16 points) picked up his second foul less than five minutes into the game. The Explorers managed to build a 20-14 advantage with Duren on the bench before going stone cold in the second half.

"Our problem was we couldn't stop them the whole night," Giannini said. "(Most of the time) 74 points is good enough to win a basketball game."

It wasn't because Hollis-Jefferson was there to make sure the Explorers needed more to win the Big 5 title on Temple's home floor.

"Rahlir was big for us today," Wyatt said. "He's been big for us all year. With Rahlir, you're not (always) going to get a performance like that, but he's going to play hard every game. He's going to give you great effort every game. It was cool to see him out there having fun and enjoying the moment."